<glacius:metadata>

    <title>Transcription of "The Moon" from DuckTales</title>

    <description>

        I transcribed the famous theme from "The Moon" from the NES game DuckTales

    </description>

    <category>Music</category>

    <category>Music transcription</category>

    <category>Video games</category>

    <series order="11">2022 music project</series>

</glacius:metadata>

<p>

    <em>The Moon</em> is in the pantheon of great video game music. Even though

    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckTales_(video_game)"><em>DuckTales</em></a>

    was a pretty decent game for the NES, it's nothing spectacular, and as such,

    this song was a kind of a sleeper hit. Unlike, say, <em>Castlevania</em>, which was a

    famous game with a bunch of great music, <em>DuckTales</em> doesn't have the "amazing

    game with amazing music" appellation; it's merely a "pretty good game

    with this one incredible piece of music".

</p>

<h2>Gameplay</h2>

<glacius:figure 

    glacius:src="ducktales-gameplay-faded.mp4" 

    glacius:thumbnail="ducktales-gameplay-poster.jpeg" 

    type="video">

    <caption>Gameplay of <em>DuckTales</em> for the NES</caption>

</glacius:figure>

<h2>Odd meter of the intro</h2>

<p>

    Anyway, this song has been covered to death. However, transcriptions were

    not incredibly abundant, and the the little arpeggiated riff at the beginning

    has some weird timing that nobody ever seemed to get right. This weirdness

    is rectified later in the song by adding a <span style="color: #66cc66">C&#x266f;</span>

    to make it an even 16 eighth notes.

</p>

<glacius:grid cols="2">

    <div>

        <glacius:figure glacius:src="ducktales-moon-intro-15-8.png" type="image">

            <caption>The correct transcription of the intro from <em>The Moon</em></caption>

        </glacius:figure>

    </div>

    <div>

        <glacius:figure glacius:src="ducktales-moon-verse-4-4.png" type="image">

            <caption>Slightly altered intro riff played later in the song</caption>

        </glacius:figure>

    </div>

</glacius:grid>

<p>

    <div>

        <glacius:figure glacius:src="ducktales-moon-intro-wrong.png" type="image">

            <caption>A prepended C&#x266f; makes this more natural to play for humans</caption>

        </glacius:figure>

    </div>

    <div>

        <glacius:figure glacius:src="ducktales-moon-intro-wrong-with-f.png" type="image">

            <caption>Or, alternatively, prepending an F&#x266f;</caption>

        </glacius:figure>

    </div>

</glacius:grid>

<h2><em>The Moon</em> Transcription</h2>

<p>

    Music from <em>DuckTales</em> was composed by 

    <a href="https://capcom.fandom.com/wiki/Hiroshige_Tonomura">Hiroshige Tonomura</a>, except

    for the iconic theme song (written by Mark Mueller, arranged for the game by Tonomura).

</p>

<glacius:figure glacius:src="ducktales-nes-moon.ogg" type="audio">

    <caption>Theme from <em>The Moon</em> from DuckTales, composed by Hiroshige Tonomura</caption>

</glacius:figure>

<glacius:figure glacius:src="ducktales-moon-transcription-sample.png" type="image">

    <caption>Sample transcription of <em>The Moon</em> by Hiroshige Tonomura</caption>

</glacius:figure>

<h3>Downloads</h3>

<ul>

    <li><glacius:link file="11-ducktales-moon-theme.pdf">Transcription (pdf)</glacius:link></li>

    <li><glacius:link file="11-ducktales-moon-theme.ly">Lilypond source</glacius:link></li>

</ul>

<h2>Other versions</h2>

<p>

    As I mentioned, this song has been covered/arranged to death. Here are some of my

    favorites in order of how great I think they are:

</p>

<ol>

    <li>

        <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4NDgUnl1nY">GaMetal's metal remix</a> -

        and yes, he even gets the meter right during the intro!

    </li>

    <li>

        <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhy2aNEPshw">Smooth McGroove's multipart 

        a cappella</a>

    </li>

    <li>

        <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-OUB5_L4zA">MassiveCarCrash's remix</a>

    </li>

    <li>

        <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wiH1TudsXs">erock's <em>Moon Theme Meets

        Metal</em></a>

    </li>

    <li>

        <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrqzu3GmFi4">Tom Winter's acoustic guitar

        arrangement</a>

    </li>

    <li>

        <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPy_AHIIkZY">8-bit Big Band's orchestral

        arrangement</a> - befitting an orchestra, they also got the intro meter right.

    </li>

    <li>

        <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUAkeNa8maU">Dr. Unknown's smooth jazz cover</a>

    </li>

</ol>

<p>

    This is a miniscule selection, there are many more on YouTube and around the Internet.

</p>